Chapter 77
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: Silver Knight Order
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The palace's morning was so refreshingly clear it made the uproar of a few days ago seem utterly trivial.
The bone-chilling screams of the Water Eunuch and the icy terror wrought by Dark Heaven's shadows had scattered away with the night's mist. Power belonged to the victor, after all. The ministers, who had firmly imprinted the occupant of the jade throne in their minds, were now fully prepared to dance to Regent Cheonwi's whims with the dawn of this new day.
And today, an entirely different kind of thrill was stirring the crowds before the empire's main gates.
Roooooo!
A majestic trumpet blast echoed over the Imperial Palace's high walls, spreading across the entire capital.
With a creaking groan, the massive palace gates swung wide open, unleashing a dazzling flood of light from beyond the horizon.
It was a wave of gold, pure and simple.
The delegation from the great western power, the Great Qin Empire.
Their splendor surpassed the wildest imaginings of the empire's citizens.
Clank, clank.
Entering in disciplined unison were not brutish muscle-bound giants.
They were knights clad head to toe in gleaming white-silver plate armor. Cascading from beneath their helmets was hair like molten gold, shining brilliantly one and all.
"Whoa..."
Awe rippled through the gathered onlookers.
A exotic symphony of colors utterly foreign to the black hair of the East. The interplay of sunlit golden locks and silvery armor evoked the illusion of heavenly legions descending to earth.
But the true shock was that they were all women.
Citizen A gaped wide, nudging his neighbor's elbow.
"Hey, did you see? All women? Those are knights?"
"Tell me about it. I figured western women were just big and burly, but look at that. Slim waists, and that armor fits like a dream."
Citizen B, utterly entranced, pointed dead center at the procession. He gulped hard at the sight of an ornate carriage drawn by eight white steeds, topped with a lavish palanquin.
"Check out the one in that palanquin. Not human—looks like a doll. Skin white as dough."
The murmurs of the crowd brimmed with curiosity and reverence.
And there was one savoring the spectacle from the highest vantage, in the utmost secrecy.
Atop the ramparts.
Cheonwi pressed a monocular spyglass to his eye with one hand, curling his lips in a smirk. The procession of exotic beauties through the lens was quite the stimulant.
"Ho... prime quality."
He adjusted the focus, scanning the knights one by one. The curves peeking through their armor, the sharp gazes of those without helmets, the golden tresses fluttering in the breeze.
"Blonde blue-eyes collection this time? Things were getting stale playing only with the empire's stock. Perfect timing on this delivery."
Cheonwi pocketed the spyglass with a satisfied grin.
A sweet, fragrant conquest lust stirred within him—distinct from the bloody savor of power he'd tasted handling the Water Eunuch the night before.
"Well then, time to greet our guests."
Cheonwi straightened his robes and descended the ramparts.
* * *
The grand hall's front courtyard.
As the Great Qin delegation arrayed itself, Cheonwi descended the steps, his crimson official robes billowing. Trailing him like shadows were Iron Blood, Tira, and the palace guards.
The palanquin at the delegation's center parted its ornate drapes.
A train of dress fabric brushed the ground first, followed by elegant shoes.
"Hmph."
Emerging with a sniff was Great Qin's Second Imperial Princess, Leonora von Heinrich.
Her full lace dress puffed voluminously, a petite tiara crowned her head, and a feathered fan graced her hand—an archetype of western nobility. Pretty as a doll, as the citizens said, but her eyes gleamed with the venomous sharpness of a cornered viper.
Huang
She fanned vigorously before her nose, wrinkling it in distaste, as if sniffing something foul.
Cheonwi inwardly cheered at her blatant rudeness.
'Oh ho, haughty one? That'll be fun to break.'
Feigning utmost courtesy, he bowed.
"You've had a long journey. I am the regent in His Majesty's stead, Cheonwi."
Cheonwi's voice was smooth, but Leonora didn't even glance his way. Head held high, she fixed her gaze on the empty air above him and spoke.
"Regent?"
Leonora slowly lowered her eyes, blue orbs appraising Cheonwi from head to toe—like a fishmonger inspecting market catch.
"Hmph. Where's the emperor? Why send an eunuch to greet me?"
Her first words were no greeting, but an insult.
"So this is the vaunted Eastern Empire? Barbarians without manners. To receive imperial blood with the master absent, sending a slave instead."
The interpreter stammered in cold sweat, but Cheonwi waved him off—he needed no translation.
Cheonwi's brow twitched faintly. The eunuch guise was his own choice, but being called a "slave" through another's mouth was a novel sting. Not that it pleased him.
"It seems Your Highness misunderstands."
Cheonwi kept his smile, stepping forward.
"His Majesty is currently... occupied with a most important 'lesson.'"
"A lesson? Is the emperor a child?"
"No, a nocturnal one. Deep, physical explorations with a beauty, shall we say. Once he starts, he doesn't leave his chambers for days."
Leonora's face flushed crimson at Cheonwi's brazen reply.
"W-what? How utterly vulgar!"
"Instead, allow me to attend to you most thoroughly, Princess. Day or night, serving as you desire is my specialty."
Cheonwi stepped closer, eyes laden with innuendo. Polite on the surface, but laced with blatant mockery underneath.
That was when it happened.
Shing! Sching!
A sharp metallic ring, and silver flashes erupted.
The white-silver knights guarding Leonora drew swords in unison, blocking Cheonwi's path.
"Halt!"
The tall woman at the knights' forefront bellowed.
Knight Commander Hilda. Lithe yet powerfully toned, she leveled her longsword's tip at Cheonwi's throat.
"A lowly eunuch dares approach Her Highness? Step back, or I'll sever that filthy neck!"
Killing intent flooded the courtyard. Before the razor edge, Cheonwi didn't flinch—in fact, he looked amused.
But the women behind him were less composed.
"Ha."
A short, icy scoff cut the air.
It was Iron Blood. The empire's grand general and Cheonwi's woman strode forward with heavy boot steps.
"Drawing steel in someone else's land?"
Iron Blood drew her crescent blade at an angle from her waist. Red armor and black hair whipped in the wind, exuding fierce pressure.
"Seems manners are in short supply for you. Who do you bare fangs at?"
"Out of the way, barbarian. Protecting Her Highness is my duty."
Hilda shot back undaunted.
"Protection? Laughable. Threatening my man is provocation, not protection."
Sparks flew from Iron Blood's eyes.
Great Qin's Knight Commander Hilda versus the empire's Iron Blood General.
Western plate armor against Eastern scaled mail. Longsword against crescent blade.
Blonde versus crimson hair.
The auras of East and West's premier warrior women clashed head-on. Tension crackled like a drawn bowstring, one spark from bloodshed.
Cheonwi, far from intervening, watched with arms crossed and keen interest.
'Beauties fighting over me. What a sight.'
Then, a crisp snap of a folding fan.
"Enough, Hilda."
Leonora scowled irritably.
"No need to yap back at a barking dog. It's unbecoming."
Iron Blood's brow twitched. A dog? Hardly words for the empire's grand general. She twitched to charge, but Cheonwi subtly signaled her back.
Cheonwi was smiling. But his eyes no longer were.
"A dog, eh..."
Cheonwi murmured low.
"Does the Princess have a hobby taming dogs?"
"Of course. Our royal hounds obey perfectly. Unlike stray mutts that lunge without knowing their betters."
Leonora sneered sidelong at Cheonwi—clearly lumping him and Iron Blood together.
Cheonwi nodded, stepping closer. The knights flinched but held—the shift in his presence was uncanny.
"What a coincidence. I'm something of an expert in training myself."
Cheonwi's gaze bored relentlessly into Leonora's eyes.
"Especially the haughty beasts—the thrill of breaking them is exquisite. They snap at first, but soon roll over, tail wagging... Curious, aren't you?"
Leonora felt a chill crawl her spine. This man was a eunuch, gelded slave—yet why did he reek so strongly of a rutting male?
Ignoring her primal alarm, she snorted derisively.
"Insolent wretch. You, dare with me? Know your place."
Leonora whipped her head away.
"Hmph, not worth another word. Lead on! I need to unpack and rest. I can't stand another second in this stench."
She stormed off toward the lodgings, skirts hiked like kicked trash. The Silver Knights formed an ironclad escort around her.
Knight Commander Hilda made a throat-slitting gesture at Iron Blood before following.
Clank, clank.
As the delegation receded, an odd silence blanketed the courtyard.
"Insufferable bitch."
Tira broke it first, baring fangs in a growl.
"Want me to rip her throat? Snap her neck, and she'll shut up."
Iron Blood sheathed her blade with a rough shove, grumbling.
"Agreed. I'd have cleaved her in half on the battlefield. Cheonwi, just handle her quietly tonight?"
Cheonwi chuckled at their bloodthirsty suggestions.
"No. Killing's no fun."
He eyed Leonora's retreating golden nape, licking his lips.
"With a woman like that, you break her pride. Slowly, thoroughly. Make her unable to live a day without the 'slave' she scorned—that's true revenge, no?"
"Pervert."
Iron Blood clicked her tongue, but Cheonwi paid it no mind.
He pulled something from his pocket: a small pouch of white powder and a tiny vial. Sugar and milk.
Tira sniffed curiously.
"What's that? Poison?"
"Scarier than poison."
Cheonwi grinned wickedly.
"Great Qin's cuisine is notoriously barren. Hard bread and salty meat at best. To them, the empire's 'delicacies' are pure drugs."
He toyed with the ingredients in his palm.
"Shall we start with their taste buds? Once the tongue falls, the mind follows soon enough."
Cheonwi's eyes gleamed. A perfect recipe to subjugate Leonora was already forming in his mind.